In 42 years, William will be 7 times as old as he is right now. How old is he right now?
Answer: We can use the given information to write down an equation about William's age. Let William's age be $w$ In 42 years, he will be $w + 42$ years old. At that time, he will also be $7 w$ years old. Writing this information as an equation, we get: $w + 42 = 7 w$ Solving for $w$ , we get: $6 w = 42$ $w = 7$.